System and Method of Ruggedizing Devices Having Spinning Media Memory, Such as Automatic Data Collection Devices Having Hard Disk Drives

1. A method of operating a device having at least one solid-state memory and at least one spinning media memory for storing data, the method comprising: from time-to-time, determining whether the device is in motion; and in response to determining that the device is not in motion, transferring data between the spinning media memory and the solid-state memory.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein transferring data between the spinning media memory and the solid-state memory occurs only when the device is determined not to be in motion.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein transferring data between the spinning media memory and the solid-state memory includes writing data from the spinning media memory to the solid-state memory.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein transferring data between the spinning media memory and the solid-state memory includes writing data from the solid-state memory to the spinning media memory.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein transferring data between the spinning media memory and the solid-state memory includes: removing data from the solid-state memory; and copying data from the spinning media memory to the solid-state memory.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein transferring data between the spinning media memory and the solid-state memory includes: removing data from the solid-state memory; and copying data from the spinning media memory to the solid-state memory, if the data is not already in the solid-state memory.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: tracking frequency access information for the data.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: sensing at least one of a velocity and an acceleration of the device, and wherein determining whether the device is in motion is based at least in part on one of the sensed velocity and acceleration.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: receiving a request for data; determining whether the requested data is in the solid-state memory; and in response to determining that the requested data is in the solid-state memory, providing the requested data from the solid-state memory.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: receiving a request for data; determining whether the requested data is in the solid-state memory; in response to determining that the requested data is not in the solid-state memory, determining whether the device is in motion; and in response to determining that the requested data is not in solid-state memory and that the device is not in motion, providing the requested data from the spinning media memory.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: receiving a request for data; determining whether the requested data is in the solid-state memory; in response to determining that the requested data is not in the solid-state memory, determining whether the device is in motion; in response to determining that the requested data is not in solid-state memory and that the device is not in motion, providing the requested data from the spinning media memory; and updating frequency access information.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: receiving a request for data; determining whether the requested data is in the solid-state memory; in response to determining that the requested data is not in the solid-state memory, determining whether the device is in motion; and in response to determining that the requested data is not in solid-state memory and that the device is in motion, producing a user notification that the requested data is not available while the device is in motion.

13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: receiving a request for data; determining whether the requested data is in the solid-state memory; in response to determining that the requested data is not in the solid-state memory, determining whether the device is in motion; and in response to determining that the requested data is not in solid-state memory and that the device is in motion, producing a user notification that the requested data should not be accessed while the device is in motion.

14. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: receiving a request for data; determining whether the requested data is in the solid-state memory; in response to determining that the requested data is not in the solid-state memory, determining whether the device is in motion; in response to determining that the requested data is not in solid-state memory and that the device is in motion, producing a user notification that the device should be stopped before retrieving the requested data; receiving a user override input; and in response to the received user override input, retrieving the requested data from the spinning media memory.

15. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: receiving a request for data; determining whether the requested data is in the solid-state memory; in response to determining that the requested data is not in the solid-state memory, determining whether the device is in motion; in response to determining that the requested data is not in solid-state memory and that the device is in motion, producing a user notification that the device should be stopped before retrieving the requested data; receiving a user override input; in response to the received user override input, copying the requested data from the spinning media memory to the solid-state memory; and providing the requested data from the solid-state memory.

16. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: receiving data to store; storing the data to the solid-state memory; determining whether the device is in motion; waiting until the device is determined not to be in motion; and storing the data to the spinning media memory when the device is determined not to be in motion.

17. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: receiving data to store; determining whether the solid-state memory is full; in response to determining that the solid-state memory is full, determining whether the device is in motion; and in response to determining that the device is not in motion, storing the data to the spinning media memory.

18. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: receiving data to store; determining whether the solid-state memory is full; in response to determining that the solid-state memory is full, determining whether the device is in motion; and in response to determining that the device is in motion, providing a user message that the device must be stopped to store the data.

19. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: receiving data to store; determining whether the solid-state memory is full; in response to determining that the solid-state memory is full, determining whether the device is in motion; in response to determining that the device is in motion, providing a user message that the device should be stopped to store the data; receiving a user override input; and in response to receiving the user override input, storing the data to the spinning media memory.

20. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: disabling the spinning media memory while the device is determined to be in motion.

21. An apparatus for use with a device, the apparatus comprising: at least one solid-state memory; at least one spinning media memory; a controller configured to transfer data between the spinning media memory and the solid-state memory when the device is not in motion, and to not transfer data between the spinning media memory and the solid-state memory when the device is in motion; and a motion sensor coupled to provide at least one of velocity and acceleration information to the controller from which the controller can determine whether the device is in motion.

22. An apparatus for use with a device, the apparatus comprising: at least one solid-state memory; at least one spinning media memory; and a controller configured to transfer data between the spinning media memory and the solid-state memory when the device is not in motion, and to not transfer data between the spinning media memory and the solid-state memory when the device is in motion; wherein the device is a vehicle and the apparatus is incorporated into a general-purpose computing system carried by the vehicle.

23. An apparatus for use with a device, the apparatus comprising: at least one solid-state memory; at least one spinning media memory; and a controller configured to transfer data between the spinning media memory and the solid-state memory when the device is not in motion, and to not transfer data between the spinning media memory and the solid-state memory when the device is in motion; wherein the device is a user earned automatic data collection unit and the apparatus is incorporated into the user carried automatic data collection unit.

24. An apparatus for use with a device, the apparatus comprising: at least one solid-state memory; at least one spinning media memory; and a controller configured to transfer data between the spinning media memory and the solid-state memory when the device is not in motion, and to not transfer data between the spinning media memory and the solid-state memory when the device is in motion; wherein the device is a user carried general purpose computing system and the apparatus is incorporated into the user carried general purpose computing system.